Herman Cain is still part of the conversation, placing third at 16%. Texans Ron Paul (9%) and Rick Perry (8%) round out the top five.

Among more conservative voters, Gingrich leads Romney 23% to 20%, with Cain at 18%. Romney leads among moderates and liberals with 20% support, followed by Gingrich and Cain at 12% each.

Gallup's Jeffrey M. Jones wrote that typically by this point, Republicans have "anointed a dominant front-runner" who ends up winning the party's nomination. But just weeks before the Iowa caucuses, there is no clear favorite.

"The current contest stands to be the most competitive and perhaps most unpredictable for the Republican nomination since 1972," he wrote.

The survey of 946 registered voters was conducted Nov. 13-17, and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

Michele Bachmann goes after not only Democrats but also fellow Republicans in her new book, accusing former President George W. Bush and her GOP colleagues in Congress of failing to stay true to conservative, free-market principles when they supported the $700-billion Wall Street bailout.

A gathering of GOP presidential candidates on Saturday was unlike any other this year, when instead of finger-pointing and slashing at one another's records, they told deeply personal tales about faith, family and failures that left half of the six participants weeping.

Gov. Mike Pence said that he wants lawmakers to “work around the clock,” to find a fix for a state law that critics say allows for discrimination against gays and lesbians by those with opposing religious beliefs. But finding a legislative fix in an atmosphere of economic boycotts...

Mary Bonauto, the Boston lawyer who won the first gay marriage rulings in Massachusetts and Vermont, will lead the argument before the Supreme Court in favor of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage nationwide.

The controversy over Indiana’s religious freedom law has opened a new — and predictable — divide in the 2016 presidential race, as Republicans rise to its defense and Democrats condemn the legislation as discriminatory against gays and lesbians.